Rich Hofmann

DAILY NEWS SPORTS EDITOR

Well, at least the headline of his blog says it. A fair summation of his position comes at the end of the post:

From this view, however, Halladay isn't like anyone else. If the Phillies get to the World Series for three straight years, it will be the greatest run in franchise history. And, sorry, there's only one Roy Halladay. If you can't pay for him with Kyle Drabek, try Visa.

Right there is the entire issue. Gammons has crystallized it and he also has managed to trumpet what is undoubtedly the position of Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi. If you read the Gammons piece, you can see that, in his view, it is unclear that anybody else has the cash or the prospects to make a deal. So why would the Phillies essentially bid against themselves and offer Drabek, their best minor-league pitching prospect?

Here is another question that nobody seems to ask. If the Phillies have no interest in doing an extension with Halladay, why would he agree to a trade? He can wait -- it isn't as if his value is going down. And if you are the Blue Jays, and you know that Halladay will be looking for his last big contract as a part of this transaction -- that's only logical, isn't it? -- then won't there be many more teams in a position to do something in the off-season, at a time when you can clear salary in a more orderly way and prepare yourself to make Halladay a contract offer?